Lonely
by InvisibleGeek
Summary: The title pretty much explains it. Oneshot.


❄?￢ﾝﾄ

Bunny tensed his muscles and hopped up onto the hard, barren ground, leaving the spring time warmth of his tunnels behind. The wind swirled over the white nothingness, and cold seeped into his grey fur. Grumbling, he hopped over to where the winter spirit lay, gazing at the endless sky, his back flat against the snow and his arms outstretched, palms facing up.

Shivering, the pooka said,"This game of hide and seek is over mate, time to suck up your pride and head back to the pole." Jack didn't move, just stared unblinking as the wind wove between strands of silver hair.

Taking a cautionary step forward, Bunny's ears lowered to an odd angle and his shivering stopped. "Frostbite?" He asked, not knowing what to make of Jack's out-of-character unresponsiveness.

"If I'm here long enough," Jack blurted, his fingers twitching. "It all seems to fade."

Saying nothing, Bunny moved next to him, still standing but his shoulders slumped. The Pooka didn't know what to make of the spirits strange mood.

"Nothing matters, because there's nothing to care about. Just the empty tundra." His fingers curled, forming loose fists, while his eyes continued their unblinking stare. "I can forget my pain, I can forget everything, and just be one with my element."

As though heading his words, the wind swirled about them, tossing up snow. The particles danced around them, settling a good distance away where the wind dumped them.

He laughed bitterly, blinking the fog away. "It's sad really, that I think the absence of people will make it better, my loneliness less profound." He spat out the last word, fists tightening.

His gaze narrowed in disgust, but widened again when the wind threw snow into his vision. As the white particles floated down, Jack wilted. "My voice gets to me, it's the only thing I can hear, and it maddens me."

His shaking hands moved up to his head, where the curled tightly in his hair, his voice raising as though to prove his point. "It echoes over everything. The tundra throws my empty words back at me in mockery and I know that it's because no one cares, not even my element."

Bunny's ears were pressed tightly against his scalp and he felt sick. 'No one cares,' echoed over the plain, and came back, making jack curl up on the frozen ground. "I know!" He yelled in response, letting his echoing words fade into a rattling breath, causing Bunny to flinch. "Frostbite.." The pooka tried, only to stop at the spirits whispered words.

"Am I condemned? Did unknowingly I commit some crime punishable only by the gods? Because no matter what I do, it still hurts to exist." He slowly sat up, cerulean eyes dead. Jack stared at his hands, taking deep breaths to calm himself.

The gray furred pooka hopped over to him, nervous of his seemingly unstable state but knowing he was needed.

He gently picked up the trembling spirit, shocked by how light he was. He weighed almost as little as a snowflake, and if the iconic rabbit ever pointed it out it would surely mortify him.

With that light thought settling atop all the stresses in his mind, Bunny held Jack in an embrace against his chest, murmuring soft, comforting words to the tense child.

The wind eventually died down and as the last of the snowflakes began to fall Jack gave in, his trembling dying and his hands curling in Aster's gray fur.

"You don't have to be alone anymore," Aster whispered as Jack became still, not sure if the boy was listening but hoping he was. He was sure to emphasize his words to show just how wrong Jack was. "You have me and Sandy and Tooth and North. You have the elves and the yetis and the fairies and my eggs and Sandy's dreams. And if all of us aren't enough you have Jamie and Sophie and Claude and Pippa and Monty and Caleb and Cupcake and even that hell hound Abby." Jack sucked in a sharp breath as he laughed, leaning out of the Pooka's arms and looking at the sincerity in his expression.

The wind suddenly blasted at the pair, and Jack chuckled, his wet voice adding,"Can't forget wind."

He was pleased to see Aster smile in return, looking at the air around them. "That I can't. You have so many people that are there for you Jack, and you shouldn't have to feel alone. But just in case you ever do, stop by the warren and talk to me instead of disappearing from us okay?"

The white haired child nodded, hands reluctantly leaving the Easter Bunny's fur.

He laughed however, when his face made contact with a flying ball of snow.


End file.
